


and even though this feels so right (i'm holding back the tears tonight)

by spikeybuns



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Ill add more tags as time goes on, Six the Musical AU, and it gets pretty gay after that, but the gay doesnt really happen until after chapter 1, emma makes her broadway debut, title is from i dont need your love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29831169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spikeybuns/pseuds/spikeybuns
Summary: Emma's heard her sing before, of course she has! She's been with the entire cast for a few months now. There should be no reason she feels a bit different about her now. Maybe she's just tired from singing her solo. Yeah, that's probably it.orthe prom six au
Relationships: Alyssa Greene/Emma Nolan, Jess Monae/Carrie, Kaylee/Shelby (The Prom Musical)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 18





	and even though this feels so right (i'm holding back the tears tonight)

  
A quiet thud came from beside Winnie, which shocked her a bit since the dressing room had been dead silent just seconds before.

“Emma?” Winnie was getting her pin curls in, so she hadn’t noticed her dressing roommate at all. She’d almost forgotten Emma was gonna make her broadway debut tonight! And what better than to do that than in an alternate massive, huh?

“Oh, Emma, I know you’re feeling anxious about your debut. But it’s fine!” She started, scooting her chair closer to Emma’s. Putting an arm around her friend, she lifted Emma up so her head wasn’t planted on the desk.

“Hey, at least you’re going on for your first cover! Poor Kaylee has to go on as her third tonight.” Winnie noticed Emma brighten up a bit, her lips tugged into a smile. _Yeah, go Winnie! You’re finally being useful!_

“And just remember that you’ll probably do a way better job than I did making my debut. I only forgot the lines in the opening chat, almost forgot the entirety of get down and almost stepped on Shelby during ‘All You Wanna Do’!” It seemed to help, Emma just felt a little shaken. But she reminds herself that that was Winnie’s performance. Not hers.

She was hired to cover Seymour’s part. Emma should be able to do this. She learned the track pretty easily. Emma knows what she’s doing.

“And like, as long as you don’t forget your lines you’ll be fine! Oh, and the songs, this is a musical after all… You’ve memorized your swing map, right? Don’t wanna be in the wrong place and bump into someone else during a song!” She paused to chuckle a bit. Winnie doesn’t realize how unhelpful that was at all. Emma’s small smile washed away from her face now full of fear.

“....Thanks, Winnie.” Emma spoke in a quiet voice. She wouldn’t want to dampen the girl’s mood. She knew Winnie had good intentions, she just wasn’t sure if she knew how to comfort others.

“No problem!” Winnie replied, scooting her seat back to her side of the desk. Emma sighed, there wasn’t much she could do but get ready like everyone else.

Then Kaylee stumbled into the room. “Why did no one remind me today was my Aragon debut?” Late as ever, Kaylee Klein hurriedly runs to her side of the desk and begins to prepare for her track. Which reminds Emma to actually put her bright blue costume on.

A stress-filled 30 minutes had passed. From putting her costume on to having to deal with Kaylee rushing her Aragon look, along with Winnie somehow getting her hand stuck in her hair- she was already exhausted as she walked onto the stage.

Maddie was gracefully playing the overture, the pleasant music filling her ears. Emma was still visibly shaking, though. Suddenly, the lights dimmed and the music changed, the whole band went silent. The soft chatter amongst the audience died. Emma couldn’t calm down, though she’d have to do for now. As the curtains had already parted slightly, [smog/fog] trickling out into the audience.

Kaylee walked out, then Alyssa, she froze for a moment. She hadn’t really met the principal queens, has she? Emma’s not even sure if she remembers what they look like. Despite having gone through the past few months with them, she’s still only really talked to Kaylee and Winnie. Maybe Natalie a couple of times too.

She’d almost forgotten she was onstage before Winnie poked her, signalling for the girl to move. Emma squeaked a bit, thankful her mic was in it’s holder. Breaking the silence would be very awkward now.

Still, she carried on. Waiting until the rest of the girls were onstage. Shelby stepped out, her ponytail swishing ever so slightly as she stepped to her place. Emma took a deep breath but didn’t break her position nor did she stop walking. It was dark, yes, but somehow she saw the audience’s expectant eyes glaring at her right before she turned around.

Emma continued to take deep breaths as she watched the curtains close back up. _You can do this, you can do this, you can do this!_ Emma repeated inside her mind- though she swore she could hear herself murmur it.

“Divorced.” Kaylee started, flicking her right wrist up then turning it into a fist.

“Beheaded.” Carrie followed, motioning her hand around her neck as if it were being cut.

“Died.” Emma croaked out, however it sounded perfectly fine. She lifted her hand just above her head, bringing it down to so her elbow was just below her shoulder, then closed her hand to make it a fist along with the beat. That was easier than she expected it to be.

“Divorced.” Winnie spoke, sounding more intimidating than she actually was. She lifted her fist, then flicking her hand open to the side.

“Beheaded.” Shelby smirked- no one could see it, but you could feel the smirk in her voice. She lifted her hand and flicked it to the side, then back so her palm was facing the audience.

“Survived.” Emma all but melted at Alyssa’s voice. It sounded so angelic, so powerful. She’s sure she wasn’t the only one that thought this. The queendom practically melts at any of the queens of any cast’s voice anyway.

_Snap out of it, Emma! Why are you suddenly drooling over a girl you haven’t talked to?_

Alyssa held her fist out near her shoulders, then lifted it so it was near her head, then above her head.

“And tonight, Broadway, we are…” Kaylee spoke without a hint of nervousness as they all moved to their next position. Now that Emma could see a bit more, the almost packed theatre overwhelmed her a bit. But she didn’t let that show.

“LIIIIIIIIIVE!” Suddenly, the queens broke out into song, their perfect harmony gathering cheers from the audience.

\--

Emma could hardly remember performing anything past Ex-wives. It was as if she’d sang “Six!” Then suddenly time travelled to just before her solo.

“Catherine was a mASSIVE-” Carrie sang before being cut off by the other queens. “Wait, who decided you were the winner?” Winnie angrily spoke at the girl in green. “I think she wants another turn!” Alyssa scoffed. “Over my dead body!” Kaylee followed.

The audience laughed, Emma couldn’t help but chuckle a little as well. The other queens looked at her expectantly. She raised a brow in confusion before realizing it was her turn to speak. “A-Anyways, I think it’s my turn next!” Emma blurted out with a half-smile.

The queens went silent for a bit, making Emma somewhat nervous despite knowing this was in the script. Suddenly the women around her burst into laughter, “You?” Winnie asked. Oh, this all felt too real. She felt like she was in high school again not-so-confidently auditioning for Glinda in Wicked. “Are you for real?” Alyssa snarkily said.

“Yeah, weren’t you the one he truly loved?” Shelby laughed out. “Didn’t you finally give him the son he so desperately wanted?” _It’s part of the show, Emma. No need to tear up now._ She bit her lip and blinked away the tears that were building up. Emma couldn’t cry now, not in front of the audience at least.

“Yeah, like I had a daughter and he literally chopped my head off.” Emma felt terrible for even trying to compete with them. Even if they were just playing their parts, it all felt too real. She huffed. “Yeah. Okay, okay you’re right. I was lucky.” Emma took a deep breath. “Okay! I was really lucky.” She spoke as if admitting defeat would satisfy the queens around her.

“I was in love, I just had a beautiful baby. Henry was happy because thank god it was an Edward and not an Edwina!” Emma let out a little laugh mixed with a slight sob. “I was so excited! For his first steps, his first words, for not getting a good night's sleep for the next three years!” She sighed. Taking care of a kid sounds more stressful than making your Broadway debut.

“But I never got to see any of that… you know, people say Henry was stone hearted- uncaring, though… I’m not sure that he was..” Emma pondered on for a moment, before Carrie but in with her own words to say. “Yeah, actually, come to think of it…” She thought for a moment, trying to recall a single time Henry had been nice to Anne. “There was this one, really cute time where I had a daughter and he chopped my head off.”

Emma grunted. “I know his times with the queens before me were hard… but they were all so full of fire!” It felt like she was losing the argument, but the looks on the queens faces told otherwise. They were willing to listen until they got another opportunity to belittle her. Poor old Jane. But anything to win the ‘competition’, right?

“He raged and stormed at them, and because they are both absolute badass monarchs, they raged and stormed right back.” Emma’s grip on her microphone tightened. This all felt too real. Perhaps everyone else will mistake it for really good acting. “I didn’t do that.” She looked to the audience again. Emma could barely see past the first few rows. “Instead, I stood by him- like I was made of stone. I stood firm” Emma took a good look back at the other queens. She’d realized that she hadn’t been paying attention to them much.

“No matter his flaws, his tempers. No matter my fears and doubts, I stayed there by his side.” Winnie looked like she could break character and cry. She did once say that ‘Heart of Stone’ made her cry the first time she listened to the album. “And that wasn’t because I was scared, or naive, or weak. It’s because…” She paused for a bit. Emma feared she was gonna break down on stage.

“I loved him.” She spoke once she regained composure. That was the one thing she couldn’t relate to Jane. Well, maybe one of several things but still. She stood up to being outed in a very homophobic town not because she wanted to show her pride or anything like that. But because the insults, the punches, the shit thrown in her locker would get worse if she’d shown weakness. No one was there to comfort her but her grandma. No one was there to tell her that everything would be alright- heck, she didn’t even attend her senior prom!

Emma guesses that’s the equivalent of Jane not being able to grow up with her kid. Most likely way less worse, but it still hit close to home. The music started, telling the other queens to take a seat on the steps and let Emma do her thing. She took a breath and headed to her spot at the center of the stage.

Emma lifted her microphone up to her lips. “So, Henry…”

_“You've got a good heart  
But I know it changes  
A restless tide, untameable…” _


End file.
